The enigma that is tofu

malkoth

So I'm making a thai basil chicken dish for some friends tomorrow afternoon. Agirl i have a crush on is going to be there and I found out she's not eating meat currently. So my question is there a way I can make a thai basil tofu counterpart for her. Ive had some great tofu before at a local vietnamese resturaunt but have no idea how they do it or what kind they use. If any of you have any experience cooking with tofu I would love to hear your suggestions.

homeobocks

Tofu is great deep-fryed, especially medium tofu. It takes a long time to deep fry tofu, but you can get it pre-fried pretty cheap at grocery stores, then quickly pan fry it quickly at home. You can get two kinds of fried tofu: shallow-fried blocks of it, or deep-fried puffs. Tofu does not usally need a very long marination, and it (especially when deep-fried) absorbs flavour quite well.

Sarcastro

Although I'm not a huge fan of the tofu myself, my chef friend says fresh is best. He prefers a light pan fry. He alse notes that in vegetarian cuisine, the temptation is to use tofu as a meat substitute, instead of as it's own ingredient. It goes great in long thin slices, preferably matched with a strong flavoured dressing or sauce. It goes great when serving as one of many notes in a salad or dish, but does not fair as well as the centerpiece substance or flavour as meat typically serves.

Don't forget that there are many non-meat dishes, typically using squashes and mushrooms that serve as the hearty part of the dish, that can be made. Again, my friend suggests that when trying to trot out vegetarian cuisine, make dishes that exist by themselves as entrees, instead of focusing on making meat-based dishes without any meat actually in them.

4M3THYST

Here's some advice from a vegan: Although tofu is good... people that don't eat meat can get very bored with always substituting tofu in it's place (plus it can be very high in calories depending on the type or brand... sometimes more so than meat!). I generally found that when family and friends where having a piece of whatever kind of meat... I could just as easily enjoy yellow summer squash or zuccini in it's place. You just slice it into two halves length-wise and pan fry or grill the two pieces (in a seperate pan from the meat items, obviously). I guarantee you if she's a vegetarian, then she is well acquainted with eating either squash or zuccini so you won't have to worry about wether or not she likes it. To go even further you could cook both (with little to no extra effort) and let her pick which one to have. Between the two, yellow squash has a lot less flavor to it... so you could still marinade it like meat, and cook it in the same sauce and spices or what have you... and it will take on the flavor a little better than zuccini may. But fixing both is the way to go. Additionally, to win some brownie points, you may just want to make certain that there are plenty of meatless sides to accompany the meal. Most vegetarians or vegans don't expect people to know their dietary needs, so they generally won't complain regardless of what is made. If you had no idea and had ended up making the chicken for her, more than likely she wouldv'e politely declined it and just piled up on safe side items. That's how most of us are anyways. So no matter WHAT effort you make to accomodate her will seem impressive. Good luck!!!!

EDIT: I also suggested this avenue because tofu can be tricky to work with if you're not used to cooking it. It generally requies a "practice run"... and if this shin-dig is tomorrow, that's not much time to learn "the-way-of-the-tofu". So just beware!